Dropbox announces photo-sharing app Carousel

On Wednesday Dropbox announced a batch of new consumer products for both mobile and desktop consumers. But Drew Houston, co-founder and CEO, saved the best for last: a photo-sharing feature that allows users to sync seamlessly through Dropbox called Carousel.

“When I’m looking at the photos on my phone, I see photos I took with the phone, but I don’t see pictures from my computer or anything else,” said Drew Houston, co-founder and CEO speaking at a special event in San Francisco. “Instead of one shoebox, I have many shoeboxes.”

Carousel is a standalone app, powered by Dropbox, that aims to solve that problem. Houston said the company has been working on it for years. It works kind of like a Facebook Timeline, organizing photos into events and surfacing important photos to highlight each event. The app doesn’t actually locally store any photos or videos on a phone — everything is in the cloud, but accessible at all times. Carousel also has auto-backup, syncing photos across platforms. The app is available free, but those who want more than 5GB of space will have to pay to upgrade their account.

“Everywhere you are, you have every picture you’ve ever taken organized in a beautiful timeline,” Houston explained. “But not only that, you have every picture that’s been taken of you.”

Photos can also be shared between users in an interface reminiscent of a chat window: They can tap and quickly share batches of photos, comment on them with a message, and share with both individuals and a group. Photos and video sent can sync directly to the user’s Timeline with a click.